0
NL888 Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Does "the Creator who, stirring in the depths of his spirit, stimulated him, anticipating and assisting his intuitions" mean...?

Does "the Creator who, stirring in the depths of his spirit, stimulated him, anticipating and assisting his intuitions" mean:
"the Creator stired in the depths of Galileo's spirit, stimulated Galileo, anticipated Galileo's intuitions and assisted his intuitions"?

Context:

der of his life, and his publications were banned. Only in 1992—359 years after the trial—was an apology issued by Pope John Paul II: "Galileo sensed in his scientific research the presence of the Creator who, stirring in the depths of his spirit, stimulated him, anticipating and assisting his intuitions."
  

Top answer

Galileo is the only antecedent that makes sense.

  • Galileo is the only antecedent that makes sense.
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

6 Answers
0
Galileo is the only antecedent that makes sense.
0
What? Sorry failed to undersand you.
0
Sorry!

The word "antecedent" means the noun that a pronoun is referring to. For example:

Mother lost her keys. She looked all over the house for them. They were in her purse.

The antecedent of "they" and "them" is "keys."
The antecedent of "she" and "her" is "mother."
0
Thanks for replying.
But it is still a mess for understanding.

You said both she and her is antecedent. That created a problem: him can be referred to both Galileo or the Creator. So no distinction can be easily found there. That is why I posted the thread here.
0
NL888You said both she and her is antecedent.
No, that is not what I wrote.

Mother is the antecedent. "She" and "her" are pronouns. The antecedent for these two pronouns is "mother".
NL888him can be referred to both Galileo or the Creator.
There is a choice. "Him" can refer to the Creator, or Galileo, but the only a
0
In this context, "his" and "him" both refer to Galileo.

It is likely that if any pronoun was intended to refer to the Creator, it would be capitalized by the Pope, or the Vatican, as that would fit with the reverential style used when referring to ***. That style is not grammatically required, but is typically used by the Catholic Church and in many English translations of the Bible; th

Related Questions